red-handed

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Contents 1 English 1.1 Etymology 1.2 Adverb 1.2.1 Usage notes 1.2.2 Synonyms 1.2.3 Translations 1.3 See also 1.4 References

[edit] English

[edit] Etymology

To be taken with red hand in ancient times was to be caught in the act, like a murderer with his hands red with his victim's blood. The use of red hand in this sense goes back to 15th-century Scotland and Scottish law. Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (1819) contains the first recorded use of taken red-handed for someone apprehended in the act of committing a crime. The expression subsequently became more common as caught red-handed.^[1]

[edit] Adverb

red-handed (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic) In the act of wrongdoing.

   His mother caught him red-handed, reaching into the cookie jar.

[edit] Usage notes

• Almost always used with the verb to catch.

[edit] Synonyms

• in flagrante delicto

[edit] Translations

[edit] See also

• caught with one's hand in the cookie jar
• wrongdoing

[edit] References

• Notes:

1. ^ Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997), pp. 135-136 and 138.